Oddly enough, the people that actually love those backseat catalogs are our core audience at the moment. This current incarnation was more of a following rather than leading our audience.
We're in the process of remedying this "kitsch" right now.
Small world... my girlfriend just applied to a position with Quirky and today I see it on HN.
I once helped build a site for a client that sold all sorts of one-off stuff from around the world. Last I heard her site really took off and she's been contacting some of the orig devs about more work... it's definitely a niche market but I guess there's plenty of folks with disposable income seeking novelty.
There's a lot of money in kitsch, and following your audience is where you're supposed to be!
Probably just a bad mix between the material and my personal tastes. I often think that startups and business that submit ideas that are non-hacker-related get more criticism than they deserve from HN'ers. So heck, I'm the last guy you want to listen to! Stay with the customers :)
We're in the process of remedying this "kitsch" right now.